Opening Warp holes

[douglas]

Smolf said:
Can any of you tell me the number of possible facilities, cargo space, population limits on RW and SW? I'm a little curious because it's a big investment in resources to create these worlds and I'm not sure it's worth it?

Ringworlds have 100 facility spaces, 32000 max population, and 64000 cargo space. Sphereworlds have double that amount for each of these. If you took the Advanced Storage racial trait, that adds 20% to all three of these numbers. If you somehow acquire a ring/sphereworld with the wrong breathers on it, that only cuts the numbers in half. Ring/sphereworlds have the type and atmosphere of the race that created them, and start with optimal conditions and 150% for all three values.

Smolf said:
Do any of you use stellar manipulation or do you instead go for total conquest? I'm playing against a friend by email and one of the victory conditions is having a 300% better score than him. So will I get more points by expanding/conquering or by improving my "infrastructure" with new planets? I haven't found a post, which describes how your score are measured, so I'm not sure what to do.

From the stickied FAQ thread, "Score is calculated as follows: Every point of minerals, organics, and radioactives, generated counts as one score point. Every point of research and intelligence generated counts as one score point. Each kt of your ships and bases counts as 10 points. Each level of researched techs counts for 200 points. No points for units/pop/colonies/systems. (Ruatha) Mothballed ships don't count to score."

I'd say do both. You should always try to have a military about as large as you can support, and it would be a waste to not use it. Meanwhile, planet creators and destroyers don't cost all that much to maintain compared to a few good warships, and their long-term benefits are extremely good. Ringworlds cost a bit more to make, but if you can spare the resources from your war effort, they can be worth it in the long run.